kundalini (k¢n´de-lê´nê)
nounHinduism.Energy that lies dormant
at the base of the spine until it is activated, as by the practice of yoga,
and channeled upward through the chakras
in the process
of spiritual perfection.[Sanskrit
kuNdalinì, from feminine sing. of kuNdalin-, coiled, spiral, from
kuNdalam, ring, coil.]

"The activation of Kundalini
does not always occur from practicing Kundalini Yoga, etc. ... It has been
known to erupt spontaneously in those people on the verge of major spiritual
breakthroughs, regardless of their ideas of how enlightened they are."

"Kundalini is the origin
of primordial sound, hence Muladhara chakra has been called 'the
birthplace of all sounds'. There are four states of sound: from gross
to most subtle, these are Vaikhari (sound manifested in form), Madhyama
(sound in its subtle form), Pashyanti (sound in which the view of
the universe is undifferentiated form) and Para (unmanifest sound). Vaikhari
is the level of audible sound produced by the striking together of two
surfaces, or the plucking of a string. Madhyama (from the Sanskrit
word for 'medium') is the transition stage between heard sound and
inner vibration. With Pashyanti, the sound is heard only by the spiritually-awakened
aspirant; and by the time the Para stage (from the Sanskrit word for
'transcendental' or 'beyond') is reached, sound has passed far beyond the
audible. Para lies deeper than ordinary silence; it is an inner decibel
that is experienced as the unrealized root-sound, or sound-potential.
It is sound with practically no vibration, which has an infinite
wave-length. It is Para which corresponds to Kundalini Sakti."...

"When Kundalini awakens, the aspirant
listens to cosmic sound. When the Kundalini leaves Muladhara, he hears the chirping
of a cricket; when she crosses to Svadhisthana, the tinkling of an anklet; in
the Manipura, the sound of a bell; at the Anahata, the music of a flute,
and finally, when Kundalini crosses to Visuddha, the cosmic sound Om,
the first manifestation of Siva-Sakti
as Sonic Consciousness. The proper knowledge and understanding of Sonic
Consciousness leads to the attainment of Supreme Consciousness."...

"The presence of the syllable
Om within the inner triangle of Ajna [the third
eye], the sixth chakra, is a clear indication that the associated symbolism
is of that origin, the beginning of all things and also of their
end. Om is in equal measure the sonic vibration from which all things
emerge, and that into which they must eventually be reabsorbed at the end
of the cosmic cycle."...

'Anja, meaning 'command', the sixth chakra, situated
between the eyebrows in the subtle body. A major chakra, the centre
at which consciousness goes 'transpersonal'.'

"The wisdom centre (Ajna)
shines with the light of Cosmic Consciousness and reveals the universe
in its unified wholeness of being. But in doing so it does not blot
out the infinite richness of multicloured variations of the cosmic
theme. It embraces infinite multiplicity in a flash of intuition and
the infinite stream of time
in an eternal now."

- _Kundalini: The Arousal
of the Inner Energy_, by Ajit Mookerjee.

"Through Yoga it is possible
to transcend the genetic code to complete freedom (svatantrya). After untying
the Knot of Brahma [first chakra, muladhara] one moves beyond the attachment
to the world of names and forms and after untying the Knot of Vishnu [heart
chakra, anahata] one moves beyond the attachments caused by emotional ties
to traditions and commitments that appear as loyalty to a particular order.
The individual egodissolves
here and the will of god prevails. One no longer feels responsible
to the particulars of the world of names and forms, fully comprehending
its illusory nature. One understands lila (divine play) and acts out his
role without further creating seeds of karmas that will bring one
back to this world of maya.
One begins to hear anahad naad (anahata nada, the cosmic sound) and
shrutis (cosmic frequencies);
shrutis are heard by yogis and then delivered to the world in the form
of mantras;
organized as a unit, the shrutis constitute the body of the Veda.

As stated above, the Vishnu
Granthi is difficult to untie because of its connection with the
genetic code. This is one reason for the creation of the institution
of asceticism called sannyasa in India. By entering this order one
becomes dead in the social sense; his new birth begins in a spiritual
order, and he is called 'twice-born'. The family of the person entering
sannyasa is supposed to perform all of his funerary rites. This enables
the aspirant to free himself from the deep ties of genetic code.
Initiation given to the aspirant at this time helps him to untie
the Vishnu Granthi."

[Rudra Granthi being the
third eye/ajna]

- _Chakras: Energy Centers
of Transformation_, Harish Johari.

"To the present there has
been little systematic clinical study or scientific investigation of the
Kundalini phenomena, although certain discrepancies between the classical
descriptions of Kundalini experience and modern clinical findings have
led Western researchers to propose a 'physio-kundalini' model to account
for their observations. This concept has been derived from a model proposed
by Itzhak Bentov, an American researcher who approached the problem of altered
states of consciousness through studies of the effects of vibration-frequencies
on human physiology.

That a sequence of unusually
strong physiological reactions accompanies the rise of Kundalini we already
know from Tantric texts, from which we also learn to expect a series of
unusual psychological changes. Most meditators understand these to be the
effect of the meditation process and so are not unduly alarmed. However,
among non-meditators or among socio-cultural groups who do not have access
to information
about Kundalini energy, similar reactions may be triggered off by environmental
stimuli. The experiements of Bentov show that exposure to certain mechanical
vibration, electromagneticwaves
or sonic vibration can be responsible. The resultant symptoms, presented
for medical attention, have not till recently been fully recongnized or
understood for what they are. It is Itzhak Bentov who in his various experiments
indicates that far from being a neurotic aberration, these 'kundalini'
states indicate an alteration in consciousness linked to alterations in
bodily rhythm and bio-magnetic field.

Bentov's observations (using ballistocardiogram)
of the seated subject engaged in deep meditation reveal a rhythmic sine
wave pattern. He attributes this to the development during the course
of meditation of a 'standing wave' in the aorta, the main artery from the
heart, that is reflected in rhythmic motion of the body. This resonatingoscillator
-the heart aorta system- in turn 'entrains' further bio-oscillators -the
brain, the cerebral ventricles and the sensory cortex of the brain- which
together effect a modification of the cerebral magnetic field. This
co-ordinated system activates a travelling stimulus, an oscillating 'current',
in the sensory cortex tissue, which is finally polarized to a point where
each hemisphere of the brain produces a pulsating
magnetic field. Bentov writes: 'This magnetic field -radiated by the head
acting as an antenna
-interacts with the electric
and magnetic fields already in the environment. We may consider the head
as simultaneously a transmitting and receiving antenna, tuned to a particular
one of the several resonant frequencies of the brain.' Bentov suggests
that the 'kundalini' effect may be regarded as part of a development of
the nervous
system: 'We can postulate that our magnetic 'antennae' will bring in information
about our extended system -the planet and the sun-
and will allow us to interpret geophysical phenomena and signals to better
advantage.'"

Ah, I was, about three weeks
ago, I was handed a book, called "Secrets of the Golden Flower" by Richard
Wilhelm with an introduction by Carl
Jung. Richard Wilhelm did the eastern translations for Jung.
This book was written in 1931, and it's been translated and been reproduced,
and published several times since then, I guess it's now in paperback because
some people are getting paperback copies now. Anyway, it verbatim
describes this sound. And it says in the book it seems to all be
about this sound, the "hu". Well we are the hu-man. The
man who can hear the sound. Okay? This is about the "hu", the
sound. And that it says in there that you get this energy in your
pelvis, and that it can be developed where it literally will take your
whole body up over your head and everything. And when it finally
is at a state of perfection that it will feel like there is a columnof light
coming
right out the top of your head.

I think the word that most people use for it is the kundalini. But
that's what it is.
--David Hudson, Dallas presentation

Although the Sanskrit
word "Kundalini" originated in India, this dramatically regenerative process
has been recorded in nearly every culture and religion in the world. The
transformational energy the yogis call "shakti"
(the risen Kundalini) is alternately known in other traditions as Holy
Wind, Serpent Fire, Vital Winds, Seiki (mystical Japanese),
mana loa (Hawaiian Kahunan), Lung (pronounced "loong," this is the Tibetan
term which literally translates as "wind"), the greater kan and li (esoteric
Chinese), huo (Taoist
)
and tumo or Dumo Fire (Buddhist). These metaphoric names describe the tremendous rushing,
burning, spiralling and wavelike
physical sensations of the aroused spiritual energy. When the Kundalini
rises, these sensations may be subtle and pleasurable, or they make strike
with unexpected gale force,
literally thrashing the body around like an internalized hurricane. And
Kundalini is renowned for setting the body ablaze with incandescent inner
heat. (When I was experiencing this, I had uneasy thoughts of spontaneous
human combustion.) The Buddhist tumo literally translates as "fierce woman."

Kundalini has been called
the lifeforce -- the vital, animating current within all creation. The
energy of Kundalini has been used everywhere in the world for healing and
accessing spiritual experience. The Greek philosopher, mathematician and
physician Pythagoras
knew it as pneuma, which, according tometaphysical
researcher Mary Coddington, "came from a central fire in the universe and
provided man not only with his vitality, but his immortal
soul." The Turkish genius and founder of neurology Galen, born in 129 A.D.,
also spoke of pneuma. (Mary Coddington, _Seekers of the Healing Energy_)

Hippocrates seemed to be
aware of it as well; he referred to it as vis medicatrix naturae.
To the French philosopher Henri Bergson, it was the . The brilliant physician
Paracelsus, born in 1493, was convinced of "a healing energy that radiates
within and around man like a luminous sphere," says Coddington. "This force,
which he called archaeus, could operate at a distance and was able both
to cause and cure disease."

In a book entitled _Comte
de Gabali_s, published in Paris three hundred years ago, the Abbe N. de
Montefaucon de Villars was quite familiar with Kundalini: "The primordial electricity
or solar force, semilatent with the aura of every human being, was known
to the Greeks as the Speirema, the serpent coil; and in the Upanishads,
the sacred writings of India, it is said to lie coiled up like a slumbering
serpent." (_Kundalini for the New Age_)

The Flemish chemist Jan Baptista
van Helmont perceived
magnetic fluids emitting from the body; in the 1800's, Mesmer described
this phenomena as a mobile fluid which could be influenced for healing
purposes. The famous psychic Edgar
Cayce, Coddington notes, "described a flow
of energy in the body that is shaped like the figure eight,
with the lines crossing at the solar plexus." And D.D. Palmer, who is credited
with founding
chiropractic medicine, identified a life energy which was also to be found
in "that Intelligence which fills the universe." He named it the "Innate."
Says Coddington, "This Innate was the power that kept the automatic system
functioning, and it expressed itself through the nervous
system."

This lifeforce or energetic
expression of the divine is known by many names in other cultures. The
Mexican Huichols
call it kupuri, the Dakota Indians speak of wakan; the Hurons of oki; the
Algonquian of manitou; the African Sotho of moya; the Bantu of nzmbi; the Australians
of joja; the Dajak of Indonesia of petara; the Batak of Sumatra of tondi;
the Eskimos of quaumaneq, the Hebrews of ruach; the Chinese of chi or ki.

Traditionally, the Hindus
regard Kundalini as the divine mother, the earth goddess indwelling in
all form and phenomena. The Sanskrit word kundalin, according to mythologist Joseph
Campbell, means "that which is coiled or spiral in nature." Charles
Breaux says that this "refers to the spiral patterns of energy found throughout
the natural world, from the DNA
molecule to the shape of galaxies." (from _Journey Into Consciousness_)

Theosophist
G.S. Arundale tells us that the verb kund means "to burn" and is significant
in relation to the fiery aspect of Kundalini. He goes on to say that kunda
refers to a hole or a bowl -- "Here we are given an idea of the vessel
in which the Fire burns." And kundala represents a coil, spiral or ring,
which expresses the way the inner fire unfolds. "Out of all these essential
derivatives," says Arundale, "the word Kundalini is born, giving creative
femininity to the Fire, Serpent-Fire as it is sometimes called, the feminine
creative power asleep within a bowl, within a womb, awakening to rhythmic
movement in uprushing
and downpouring streams of Fire." (_Kundalini: An Occult Experience)

In her analysis of Teilhard
de Chardin's work, religious scholar Beatrice Bruteau says that Teilhard
often equates the primal energy of the universe to a devouring divine fire:
"It is... pointed out by science in the form of the various energies of
the world, from nuclear fusion
in the stars, to life, to soul. In all these ways, `See, the universe is
ablaze!' he cries. Fire is, for Teilhard, the archetypal
energy; it represents the ultimate energy of which all other energies are
special manifestations... Everything is illumined and animated from within
by this divine Fire. god is in the world as `a universal transparency aglow
with fire.'" (from _Evolution
Toward Divinity_)

In what sounds suspiciously
like a description of the awakened Kundalini, Bruteau continues: "For we
ourselves are now the fuel of this living flame... We must open our arms
to `call down and welcome the Fire.' It is not enough to contemplate this
'super-substantial, personal Fire which solicitously preserves what it
consumes. We must resolutely give ourselves to it as food."